Many years ago, I read the biography of the then holy father, Pope John Paul II – ‘Witness of Hope’ by George Weigel (1999). One of the things that really struck me as I read his story, was the detail about his ordination as a deacon. It was essentially a private event, taking place during the darkest days of World War II, in the private chapel of his archbishop. Prevented from celebrating this occasion in the life of the future leader of the church in grander style, the young Karol Wojtyla made do with a hand-written prayer card to mark the occasion.
He chose to quote from the Magnificat to express the wonder of what Mary experienced when the angel called her and announced to her that she would be the mother of the Lord. Like Mary, Blessed John Paul knew that anything that was good in his life was the gift of the Lord Jesus. So he was able to declare this truth in three words from the Latin Vulgate translation of the scriptures, quoting from the gospel of Luke, chapter 1, verse 49: ‘fecit mihi magna’ – fecit [he has done] mihi [to me] magna [great things].
When I was in turn ordained a deacon (3 Dec 2005), I chose to use this powerful quotation from scripture to express my gratitude to the Lord for all the wonderful and beautiful things that he has done in my life. So this website is a small way of helping to declare ‘fecit mihi magna’ – ‘[the mighty One] has done great things to me… and Holy is his name!’
- I have now transferred all of my homilies across to the new website, and updated all the links on this blog to point to the new locations.
- In addition to homilies from the past 4 years, the new website will also include talks, videos, and ebooks.